“That was a terrific win for our club on senior night for Nigel (Spikes), Dennis (Tinnon) and Rob (Goff). I thought it was a tremendous ball game, a great college basketball game. Our great and loyal fans that came tonight witnessed a terrific ballgame. Two really good clubs. Southern Miss is really good as you can see. We have a lot of respect for their program. We played at a really good level tonight. We competed at a high level. We had two stretches, one in the first half, one in the second half, where we got sloppy and careless with the ball. Minus that, I thought offensively we were as good as we’ve been all year. We were patient on offense against their zone attack. We handled the press for the most part. We got contributions from a lot of different guys and you have to against a good club like that. We mixed our defenses really well. The zone was good to us for a while until they figured it out. Dwayne Davis (Southern Miss) played at a phenomenal level tonight. He has tremendous talent. They have a good ball club. I’m proud of our kids for bouncing back and responding.”

On Nigel Spikes’ free throws:

“We made big free throws, made them when they counted, and then it was contagious. We made them from the start tonight. Every guy stepped up and looked like they were confident. We made eight of our last nine down the stretch. We made two to go up two. (Jerrold) Brooks made one then missed one after the time out, which was critical. Then we were in a foul situation with (D.D.) Scarver. Minus one bad foul, we managed the game and did exactly what we wanted to do in terms of situational stuff. We did a good job closing it out.”

On the importance of the win for the seniors:

It’s big. We are used to winning in this building. We had some inconsistencies, but we expect to win every time we step on this floor. I knew it Sunday afternoon when we practiced up in Gullickson Hall. I knew our kids would respond. We had great focus. I thought the zone was really good to us early. They made some great adjustments to it, and hurt us in corners. We played enough man down the stretch to kind of slow them down. We had no answer for Davis, but we made big plays and big rebounds when we had to get rebounds.”

“He (Manning) grew up a lot tonight. He’s really grown as a young freshman. It takes so much pressure off of us because it allows us to get Kane off the ball. We can use him as more of a passer against zone.”

On Robert Goff’s quick eight points:

“It gave us a great jolt and set the tone. It raised our confidence level. We knew there was a soft spot against the zone. He took really good shots, especially on that short baseline. That was an area we thought we could attack early and we did a good job getting there. He did a good job shooting the ball with great confidence.

“I thought the crowd was very good. The loyal fan base that showed up tonight was outstanding and they got treated to a great ballgame. That’s a really good team we beat. They had a great season so far. Our fans are tremendous though. We’ve struggled and been inconsistent, and some people maybe chose not to come, but the ones that came tonight really helped us down the stretch. We really appreciate our great fan base.